Many people do not consider their domestic Wi-Fi network is also a source of concern when it comes to protecting your data. They worry that your phone or computer will be hacked while they are connected to the Internet, or that someone will scan your wallet on the subway, but most people do not think about is your personal wireless network. The truth is that a hacker can get easy access to confidential files simply by being within range of your wifi and launching an attack on your network. Here ChillGlobal analyzes three ways to prevent hackers from connecting you to your Wi-Fi and stealing your data.

The direction of the signal

The vast majority of domestic wireless routers are omnidirectional, which means they transmit the Wi-Fi signal in all directions. This makes sense for most users because you want to have the same signal quality regardless of where you are in relation to the router. However, this is a double-edged sword because an omnidirectional router can transmit Wi-Fi out of your home and allow an attacker to receive a signal when sitting in a car near your home, for example.

To avoid this, some manufacturers provide antennas that can be connected to the router and only transmit the signal in a specific direction. If your router is located near an outside wall, you can make the signal point to the rest of the house and away from the outside. Which greatly reduce the range where you can pick up the Wi-Fi outside your home. If these antennas are not available for your router, a crude (but still effective) solution is to place a "shield" of aluminum foil next to the router in the direction you do not want the signal to go.

The Channel selection

If you live in a crowded wireless environment, such as a college dorm or an apartment complex with many Wi-Fi networks, the selection of wireless channels can be an additional control to keep your Wi-Fi protected. There are a total of 16 wireless channels in which a router can be transmitted, and most routers will come with the "Auto" selection selected, which means that it will broadcast on the channel with fewer people available. While this is preferable for signal quality, you can deliberately configure your router in a crowded channel so that an attacker cannot connect from outside your home. Of course, this will degrade the signal quality of your devices, so you'll have to make sure your devices are physically close to the router or connected by cable.

The White list of MAC addresses

A highly effective method to protect your Wi-Fi network is to use the white list of MAC addresses. Each wireless device has its own unique MAC address, which is like a serial number that identifies it on the router. The simple solution here is to allow only the MAC addresses of the devices you own to connect to the router, which can be done through an advanced administrative configuration in the router configuration. Connect all your devices to the wifi, find out what your MACs are through the router's control panel (it will indicate you in a configuration like "Active Connections"), then configure the router to block everything except those addresses. The drawback here is that you must add the MAC address of each new device manually before you can connect, and your friends may get angry when they come and visit and cannot use the Wi-Fi!

Protecting your home wireless network is an important step to protect your data and sensitive files. Follow our advice in this blog to prevent attackers from establishing themselves in your network.

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